[13lackGu4rd]

none of the above? set him at the back, either top or bottom corner, with orders to retreat. as soon as someone attacks(most likely scenario is an indy event) him he'll just retreat to another friendly province. with that being said, assassins can be a pain in the butt, and could really ruin your day. the thing is that most nations don't really rush assassins(LA Abysia aside), so you should have plenty of time to manual search with your pretender in the begining. also, don't send him to the front lines unless there is a near fort he can retreat to if danger is lurking by. if you expect them to be used against you than you should consider scripting something offensive to kill the assassin in a turn or 2, otherwise retreat him to the nearest fort and stop manual searching with him.

now, if you're expecting to be dealing with early assassins, presumably if you've really pissed off a neighbor with recruitable assassins(or indies, mostly in LA) than you can take the risk and script him to something offensive that should kill an assassin in a turn or 2. in this case it depends on the quality of the assassin sent against you and quite a bit of luck. also if he's attacked by a normal army he won't retreat, thus will most likely die. you can also take the safer course which is to only site search in safe provinces, as in non front line, surrounded by friendlies(so he won't be attacked). if you really fear assassins than make sure to patrol a group of provinces heavily before you send your pretender to manual search in, the patrols should catch most if not all of the assassins given enough troops(fliers, cavalry and troops with a patrol bonus are best).